Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister said his government intends to lay claim to
the North Pole, but is delaying a full international bid for seabed rights in
the resource-rich Arctic until scientists can gather sufficient data to back up
this territorial expansion.

John Baird held a news conference Monday to explain why Canada has filed only
a partial submission to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf
by last’s week’s deadline.

Watch

He made it clear that Ottawa has no intention of forfeiting the geographic
North Pole, a stand that will put Canada at odds with Russia and Denmark – two
countries expected to stake an interest in the region. This is the first time a
government cabinet minister has publicly declared Canada wants to claim the
Pole.

Mr. Baird said Canada has not completed mapping the underwater Lomonosov
Ridge that the government hopes would effectively link this country to the North
Pole.

The due date for Canada’s filing was Dec. 6 and Ottawa confirmed Monday that
it filed only a partial claim last week that included a separate for 1.2 million
square kilometres of Atlantic seabed rights plus a note saying it would file an
Arctic claim at a later date.

“We have asked our officials and scientists to do additional and necessary
work to ensure that a submission for the full extent of the continental shelf in
the Arctic includes Canada’s claim to the North Pole,” Mr. Baird told reporters
on Parliament Hill.

“What we want to do is claim the biggest geographic area possible for
Canada.”

As The Globe and Mail first reported last week, Prime Minister Stephen Harper
made a last-minute intervention in Canada’s planned submission to the United
Nations commission that is accepting claims for seabed rights in regions such as
the Arctic.

Mr. Harper asked Canadian bureaucrats to go back to the drawing board and
craft a more expansive claim for ocean-floor resources in the polar region after
the proposed submission they showed him failed to include the geographic North
Pole.

Ottawa will be doing more mapping and research to support this.

The government failed to adequately explain Monday why after 10 years of work
on the claim – and $200-million of spending – it had not identified and resolved
shortcomings in mapping before the December, 2013, deadline.

“I think in many respects, you can say we ran out of time,” Mr. Baird said.
“This is a gigantic process, one of the biggest geographical exercises in
Canadian history. We’ve come a long way. What I think Canadians would expect us
to do is to take the time to get it right.”

University of Calgary Arctic expert Rob Huebert can’t explain why Canada’s
submission has run into overtime. He speculated that the scientists and civil
servants in charge of the mapping process either failed to pay sufficient
attention to the political significance of claiming the Pole – or, conversely,
that they were reluctant to submit a claim that would create a conflict with
Russia.

Russia already filed a submission in 2001 that lays claim to seabed rights as
far as the Pole, but was informed its bid required more supporting evidence.
Denmark is expected to do so by 2014.

At stake is potential wealth. The Arctic is believed to contain as much as
one-quarter of the world’s undiscovered energy resources, and countries are
tabling scientific evidence with the UN commission to win rights to polar
sea-floor assets.

Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, a country can secure control
of ocean floor beyond the internationally recognized 200-nautical-mile limit if
it can demonstrate the seabed is an extension of its continental shelf.

Mr. Baird pointed out that owing to a backlog at the UN commission it will be
several years before Canada’s claim is scrutinized – a delay that gives Ottawa
time to flesh out the bid for Arctic seabed rights.

To support a stake that lays claim as far as the North Pole,
Canada would have to establish that underwater mountain ridges including the
Lomonosov Ridge are linked to Canada’s continental shelf.

“It has to be shown that it’s connected to the North American
continent and extends outward. If there’s a break it doesn’t hold,” said Prof.
Huebert, associate director of the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies at
the University of Calgary.

Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, coastal countries
are entitled to economic control over the waters that stretch as far as 200
nautical miles (370 kilometres) from their shores. If a country can prove its
continental shelf extends even farther, it may be granted control of a greater
expanse.

Countries such as Canada have conducted aerial and ship-borne
mapping of the Arctic seabed for years to support their claims.

Mr. Baird said Canada last Friday filed claims for a massive
amount of seabed off the Atlantic coast. These Atlantic claims will likely place
Canada at odds with the United States, Denmark and France.

Canada says it believes France has no right to claim additional
seabed rights around its overseas holdings of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon. But
Canadian officials in a technical briefing said they expect Paris to
differ.

“Our submissions set out the potential outer limits of our
Continental Shelf in the Atlantic Ocean including extensive areas in the
Labrador Sea, the Grand Banks and off the province of Nova Scotia. In all, we’re
talking about an area of about 1.2 million square kilometres,” Mr. Baird said.
“That’s roughly the size of Alberta and Saskatchewan combined.”

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